BILL ANALYSIS
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1765
Author: Solorio (D), et al
Amended: 3/11/10 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC EMP. & RET. COMMITTEE : 4-2, 6/28/10
AYES: Correa, Corbett, Ducheny, Liu
NOES: Ashburn, Hollingsworth
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-4, 8/12/10
AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Corbett, Leno, Price, Wolk, Yee
NOES: Ashburn, Emmerson, Walters, Wyland
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 55-14, 6/1/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Public employment: furloughs
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill exempts employees of the California
Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the Employment
Development Department from being furloughed when the
unemployment rate in California during the previous month
reached or exceeded 8.5 percent.
ANALYSIS :
Existing Law
1.Sets forth the general policy that the workweek of a
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state employee shall be 40 hours and authorizes workweeks
of different hours to be established in order to meet
varying needs of different state agencies.
2.Authorizes the Governor to require that the 40-hour work
be worked in four days in any state agency or part
thereof when the Governor determines that the best
interests of the state would be served hereby.
3.Vests the Department of Personnel Administration (DPA)
with the duties and responsibilities for the
administration of salaries, hours, and other
personnel-related matters and authorizes DPA to represent
the Governor in matters of collective bargaining related
to hours, wages, and working conditions.
Executive Orders S-16-08 and S-13-09 imposed mandatory
furloughs on state civil service employees, regardless of
funding source and with limited exemptions.
Furloughs of two days per month began in February 2009 and
were increased to three days per month in July of 2009.
Since the July implementation, many state departments,
boards, and commissions have been closed three days per
month. Some have been exempted from closure and those
employees are on a self-directed furlough program. The
self-directed program allows employees to accrue furlough
days and use them like vacation days, upon management
approval. Accrued furlough days have no cash value and
must be used within 24 months of the end of the furlough
program.
According to DPA, accrued furlough days must be used before
an employee may use accrued vacation, annual leave,
personal holidays, holiday credit, personal leave time
credit, and compensatory time off.
The current three day furlough requirement amounts to a
reduction of approximately 13.85 percent of employees'
compensation.
According to DPA, some departments employing civil service
employees have been exempted from the furlough program.
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1.California Highway Patrol and 911 Dispatchers
2.Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (during fire
season)
3.The Public Utilities Commission
4.The Legislative Counsel Bureau
5.The Bureau of State Audits
The current furlough program is scheduled to end on June
30, 2010.
This bill:
1.Exempts state employees from being furloughed if all of
the following are true:
A. California's unemployment rate during the previous
month reached or exceeded 8.5 percent.
B. The individual is employed in a position funded at
least 95 percent or more by the federal government.
C. The employee performs services related to the
Unemployment Insurance Program.
D. The employee works for the California Unemployment
Insurance Appeals Board (CUIAB) or the Employment
Development Department.
2.Makes findings and declarations about the necessity of
unemployment insurance benefits, and underperformance and
failure to achieve federal standards by related state
departments, attributable to the Governor's imposed
furlough program.
Comments
According to the author's office, "Employee furloughs in
EDD and CUIAB impede employees' ability to review
applications for unemployment insurance, pay unemployment
benefits, and approve training that will help unemployed
individuals regain marketable skills. Additionally,
furloughs are creating a long-term liability for the state
when the affected employees begin to utilize their required
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banked furlough days."
As stated in the findings and declarations of the bill,
"Furloughing state employees whose positions are financed
by the federal government and who work in programs designed
to combat the state's economic recession fails to produce
savings to the state General Fund, reduces services to the
public, contributes to the late payment of vital
unemployment benefits to unemployed people in California,
and delays the state's economic recovery."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12
2012-13 Fund
Furlough exemption
Loss of payroll -- potentially up to $17
million annually Federal
Savings for each furlough day
imposed --
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/16/10)
Association of California State Supervisors
California Labor Federation
California Nurses Association
California State Employees Association
California State Employees Retirees, Inc.
California State University Employees Union
Professional Engineers in California Government
Service Employees International Union, Local 1000
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/16/10)
Department of Finance
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The California Labor Federation
states, "Labor law enforcement, unemployment benefits
assistance, and highway maintenance and safety - all of
these programs have been derailed by furloughs. Not only
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have furloughs caused serious backlogs throughout state
government, but they have also jeopardized essential
enforcement work due to the inability of furloughed workers
to meet statutes of limitations. This misguided policy has
harmed nearly all Californians, and especially hurt the
most vulnerable."
SEIU Local 1000 notes that "EDD is nearly one hundred
percent federally funded, meaning that furloughs in EDD do
not save the General Fund one dime. This has left
thousands of unemployed Californians struggling every day
to make ends meet, while waiting to receive their
unemployment insurance assistance. The situation at EDD
simply confirms that there are no savings with furloughs."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Department of Finance
opposes this bill, noting hat furloughs are a temporary
cash management solution to achieve immediate cost savings
in a fiscal crisis. DOF believes that it is necessary to
apply furloughs across the board in order to effectively
manage the workforce and avoid inequities, and that this
bill would limit the power of future governors to implement
furloughs in a fiscal emergency.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall,
Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan,
Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway,
Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer,
Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani, Hall, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jones, Lieu, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello,
V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana,
Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico,
Yamada, John A. Perez
NOES: Bill Berryhill, Blakeslee, Fletcher, Fuller, Gaines,
Garrick, Harkey, Logue, Miller, Nielsen, Silva, Smyth,
Tran, Villines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Tom Berryhill, Cook, DeVore, Emmerson,
Gilmore, Hagman, Jeffries, Knight, Norby, Audra
Strickland, Vacancy
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CPM:cm 8/16/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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